Nothing Lasts Like a First Impression
by TinkerBella7
Summary: So helloyesimhere wanted to do a fic exchange, which I'm totally down with. So in my story, Christmas Snow and Miracles A Glow I alluded to Jack and Mac's first time meeting and helloyesimhere wanted me to write about it. So here it is, complete with some Mac whump. Enjoy.


Jack had his phone in his hand, but the screen was dark. All of his attention was focused on the figure in the bed. It wasn't the first time Jack had sat vigil over MacGyver in a hospital room, but every time he certainly hoped it would be his last. He dropped his eyes to his watch and he wasn't the least bit surprised to hear the sound of running footsteps from the hall drawing closer.

A moment later the door opened and Bozer skidded inside. His eyes locked on MacGyver, who lay still beneath the pristine covers, an IV line in the back of one hand, his golden hair mussed a bit. He looked like he was sleeping. Bozer turned to Jack. "What happened?"

"He caught in the tail end of one of his explosions," Jack said. "Long story short, he blew up the bad guy's compound but one of the goons got a hold of him...my fault...and by the time Mac took the guy down he didn't have much time left to run."

"It wasn't your fault, Jack," Riley stated. She had come in behind Bozer. In fact she was the one who had gone to get him, revealing the news that Mac was in the hospital. On the drive here she had repeatedly told him that MacGyver would be all right, but Bozer couldn't accept that until he saw for himself. She totally understood.

Jack shrugged. "I should have been with him. So it was my fault."

Riley heaved a dramatic sigh as she moved to Jack's side and smacked him on the shoulder. "Mac told you to get the bad guy's wife and son out of the compound, and he would be right behind you. You did what you had to do."

"My job is to watch his back," Jack insisted, because that's what he had signed up for. MacGyver was his priority. Riley too, of course, but she had been safe at the foundation for this one, doing her thing from the conference room.

"But he's going to be okay, right?" Bozer interjected.

Jack was quick to reassure him. "He's going to be fine. He's battered and bruised, but nothing's broken. Doctor said he's got a mild concussion, but luckily Mac has a thick skull. Other than a headache for a day or two he'll be good."

Bozer was relieved but as he moved closer to the bed and studied his friend, he had to ask. "Then why the IV and stuff?"

"Mac has this quirky thing where meds tend to affect him differently than most people," Jack explained. "A sedative that would keep one of us out for eight hours might last for two on Mac. And some pain meds and sedatives hype him right up. We've learned that IV's work best in the long run. He mainly needs to rest and we can take him home tomorrow night."

"You know, I think it almost better when I was oblivious to all this stuff," Bozer confessed. There was a chair on the other side of Mac's bed and he moved to drop into it. "Can we stay with him?" Even though MacGyver was alive and going to be okay, the reality of the fact that he almost died tonight made Bozer want to keep an eye on him.

Jack knew where Bozer was coming from and he nodded. "Thornton cleared it, so it's all good." He turned to Riley. "You can go home if you like. I know you're tired." He was tired too, but he'd be fine with dozing on and off.

Riley shook her head, grabbing the other chair in the corner of the room. She drew it over next to Bozer and sat down. "I'd like to stay." Mac had become family and she had seen the explosion that had nearly killed him. Sure he had come stumbling out of the debris, but only to collapse at Jack's feet and that had horrified Riley. She would feel better keeping watch over him as well.

"Can't say I mind the company," Jack allowed. "Seeing as how Mac here isn't going to be talking much." Jack grinned at the others as he got up and stretched a bit. He'd been sitting for over three hours. In a bit he'd go on a bathroom break and grab a snack and some more coffee.

"Hey, Jack." Bozer spoke up. When the other man turned to face him he asked, "How did you and Mac meet? Now that I know it wasn't at the Think Tank, I've been wondering."

Riley piped up. "That makes two of us. Neither one of you has ever mentioned it. I'm guessing it was either very epic or very boring."

Smiling fondly at the memory, Jack dropped back into his seat and stretched out his legs, settling in to tell his tale. "It wasn't exactly boring," he allowed, then he began. "We met in Afghanistan. I was part of Special Forces and I can't really tell you details but my team and I were basically moving from point A to point B and clearing the path along the way."

"Clearing it of what?" Bozer queried, his curiosity piqued. "Debris?"

"Well, there was a lot of that," Jack acknowledged, letting his mind drift back in time. "We were searching for the enemy, they were hiding out all over the place. Sometimes we had to clear out families, send them back to the towns where they'd be...safer. Anyway, one of the things we cleared were bombs and land mines. So one day, about four and a half years ago, my CO tells me to go into town, which was about 70 miles from where our current base was stationed, and pick up our new EOD expert. Tells me his name is Angus MacGyver and sends me on my way." He remembered how other members of his team had asked him to bring back some goodies like booze and candy bars and a few toiletries. They lived hard and sparse for the most part, so it didn't take much to make them happy.

"So I take off and I get there in about an hour and a half and I figure the guy would be waiting for me at the drop off, which was about a five minute walk from the local bar." Jack chuckled when Riley let out a snort.

She shook her head at him. "Let me guess, your first stop was at the bar?"

Jack glared at her, but there was no heat to it. "I'm offended that you would think I'd slack off my duty. I went to the drop point first and didn't see anyone in fatigues that looked like and EOD expert, so I waited almost twenty minutes before heading off to quench my thirst. It's very hot and very dry in Afghanistan, I'll have you know." He chuckled at Bozer's eye roll and continued. "So I get a drink, I buy a few bottles of booze and some chocolate bars then I head back to the jeep to find this kid leaning against the side, looking all hot and irritated. When I reach the jeep and dump my stash in the back he says to me, 'Are you, Lt. Dalton?' And I look him up and down and wonder to myself how the hell does this kid know my name. So I tell him, just call me Jack. And you are?" Jack fell into the memory then.

 _"I'm Angus MacGyver, your new EOD specialist. I believe you were expecting me."_

 _"You're MacGyver?" Jack couldn't even hide his surprise. "Are you shitting me? How the hell old are you? Sixteen? Do your parents know you skipped school today and ran away to Afghanistan?"_

 _MacGyver pinned him with a glare. "My age has nothing to do with my ability to do my job." He picked up the duffle bag that had been resting at his feet and tossed it into the back before climbing into the jeep. "Can we go now? I'm guessing that Colonel Stiller is expecting me before dark?"_

 _He was at that, but Jack remained silent as he slid behind the wheel and turned the jeep back around towards the base camp. The silence lasted for all about twenty minutes before he had to ask again. "Seriously, how old are you, kid?"_

 _"How old are you?" MacGyver shot back._

 _"Let's just say the wrong side of forty and leave it at that," Jack countered, figuring it was only fair to go first. "Now it's your turn."_

 _After a long pause, MacGyver replied. "Twenty. Happy now?"_

 _Jack had figured the kid couldn't realistically be sixteen and be here, but at the same time he hadn't expected him to actually be as young as twenty. "So how do you get to be a bomb expert at twenty years old?"_

 _"Practice," MacGyver shot back, sarcasm oozing from his very pores._

 _"Hope so," Jack replied. "Experience in the field would be better though. Our last expert was twice your age."_

Before Jack could continue Bozer interjected.

"What happened to the other expert?" he asked.

"Enemy got the drop on us and took him out with a sniper shot," Jack replied, shuddering at the memory of that night. The EOD specialist hadn't been the only one to die. Jack had lost a good friend that night as well, and he was still working through that to this day. But back then you had to lock your emotions in a box to deal with later.

Riley found it hard to believe that this was what Jack and MacGyver had been doing just a few years ago. "It's so weird that MacGyver was considered an expert at that age."

Jack knew that feeling, it had been shared by him and his entire team at the time. "It was tough on Mac. He was, and is, the best of the best, but being so young...the guys had a hard time accepting him. It still happens to him now and then."

"Like that mission we went on right before that whole Murdoc thing happened," Riley spoke up. She turned to Bozer and explained. "We had to rescue this dude who refused to take Mac seriously, which actually made our job harder. He just couldn't get past how young Mac is, and he kept calling him boy. Pissed MacGyver off like you wouldn't believe."

"I believe," Bozer replied, laughing. "I can't tell you how many times he's gotten carded at bars. " Leaning in and whispering, even though MacGyver was sedated and wouldn't hear him, he said, "Don't tell Mac, but when he took me out last week for pre-birthday beers, he still got carded."

Riley got side-tracked. "Pre-birthday beers?"

Bozer nodded. "Yeah, it's something we started doing for each other once we turned twenty-one. Because of Mac's work we never seemed to be able to hang out on our birthdays, so a new tradition was born."

"So when is your birthday?" Riley prompted, making a mental note to remember to get him something.

"I'll tell you later," Bozer said, focusing back on Jack. "Go on with your story. So what happened next?"

Jack picked up where he left off. "Well, I brought him back to base and took him to my CO before passing out the goodies to my team. They asked me about him and I told them we really didn't talk, because we didn't. I remember Mac just watching the scenery, and every now and then he would ask me question about our surroundings. That was it."

Riley tried to imagine what it must have been like for them in Afghanistan, how MacGyver had disarmed bombs at twenty years old, putting his life on the line every single day. Sure they risked their lives now on every mission, but it wasn't the same as spending every day in enemy territory looking for bombs. "Was he different then, than he is now? I mean, it's only four and a half years I know, but that must have been a different time."

"It was," Jack confirmed. "Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago."

"So what was his first impression of you?" Bozer asked.

Jack shrugged. "Don't know, he's never said and I never asked. Anyway, moving on. Every night those of us not on watch would hang out, even though everyone was always on alert. Our CO brought Mac over to introduce him to everyone and you should have seen their faces when they caught sight of him. I felt bad for him, because I knew they were going to tease him and mock him relentlessly."

Riley wasn't surprised, but she did wonder. "Did you stand up for him?"

"I wish I could say I did." Jack winced as he remembered sitting back and watching the show. "I felt like the others in the beginning. This kid didn't belong there, he belonged in school and hanging out with his friends. He wasn't a soldier, he wasn't one of us. The thing you have to understand is that, out there...we're a team, brothers in arms. We watch each other's back. How was this kid going to watch our backs, especially when Duke noticed he wasn't armed. So he asked about it and Mac told him he didn't believe in using guns. Which rubbed all of us the wrong way, not gonna lie."

"So what did Mac do?" Bozer was beyond curious and totally invested in learning about this side of his best friend that he never had a clue about.

Jack couldn't help but chuckle. "He did what he always does, proved us all wrong about him. Proved he belonged there. But it tough going without a doubt. He did have support from one of us. We called One Note."

Riley frowned. "Why?"

"He loved music, but he couldn't sing but about one note," Jack explained, chuckling at the memory. "He had a radio he'd bought in one of the bazaars along the way. Traded for it, actually. So he had his music and that's what got him through. That's what kept him calm and focused. He was one hell of a sniper, and he'd just let his music wrap around him and he was in the zone. Didn't matter what the music was, he just needed it. So, anyway, the CO is introducing MacGyver and everyone is just staring at him and not even trying to hide the fact that they didn't want this kid around, when One Note's radio fritzed out."

Rising to his feet, Jack went to the window next to bed and looked out at the stars, remembering how different they had looked that night. Different because they weren't the stars from home. "This was One Note's third tour and some stuff went down...bad stuff...so he needed his music to get him through the memories and the nightmares. Anyway, he was started to get freaked out and I went over to talk him through it when Mac picked up the radio and fiddled with it. Duke went to take it from him when the music came back on, better the before. Clearer, with less static. One Note was thrilled, and Mac kept that radio going even rigged new batteries and somehow kept it in one piece when Duke accidentally stepped on it. So One Note stood up for Mac right from the start, when the rest of us just wouldn't give him a chance or a break. And to be honest, I was one of the worst. I pranked him every chance I got, but I have to say, he took it without complaint."

Riley snorted. "So let me get this straight, you were a bully to Mac?"

"Pretty much." Jack scrubbed a hand over his face. "I'm not proud of that fact, I even apologized to him about it more than once later on. To be fair, Mac held his own. He knew how to get even, to the point that a few of us cried *Uncle* pretty damn quick. So he gained some respect from that and the fact that everything we had that was broken suddenly turned up fixed. A fact our CO pointed out at breakfast one morning, about a week after Mac showed up. He fixed one of my guns for me. He won't use them, but he knows how they work. Anyway, things slowly turned around for him except for one guy. KingFisher. Roy Kingfisher. He was Cherokee Indian, six foot-four and built like a tank. No matter what MacGyver did, he couldn't get past his age. He would see all the bombs Mac would disarm and it didn't matter, he just wouldn't warm up to him."

"What about you?" Bozer interjected. "When did you warm up to him? After he fixed your gun?"

Turning away from the window, Jack looked over at MacGyver lying there and looking as young as he had all those years ago. "That didn't hurt, but I realized I felt protective towards him right from the beginning. I mean, it was our job to protect so he could do his job and disarm bombs and land mines." Jack got lost in a memory for a moment and had to shook his head to bring himself out of it enough so he could share it. "We were in this village, if you could call it that, and there was a live bomb just sitting there out in the open. We were smack dab in enemy territory, but there women and children there and Mac wasn't going to leave without disarming that bomb. So me and Duke were with him and One Note was about fifty yards away watching us through his sights. Anyway, about a dozen guys show up shooting, we take down who we can, One Note is doing his thing and all the while Mac is focused on disarming the bomb. He's almost there when he's grabbed and this guy has a gun pressed to his head. He's dragging Mac away from the bomb when the kid stumbles so the guy loses his balance and that's all I need to shoot him in the head. Next thing I know Mac is back at the bomb which is about to go off and he stops it. I was stunned, but we didn't have time to talk about it."

Jack paused for a moment to grab his water bottle and take a drink, before reclaiming his chair and getting comfortable before continuing. He looked at Bozer and Riley's faces and realized he had a totally captivated audience. "So we had to move out and we're on the road when we're shot at, out of no where. Driver gets hit and falls out of the jeep and next thing I know Mac jumps out after him. I was freaking out. I jump out and there's a Afghani rebel standing over Mac and the driver, whose name was Curly, by the way - don't ask- and the rebel is about to shoot and Mac is protecting Curly with his own body and the next thing I know the kid is throwing sand in the rebel's face, I shoot the rebel, Mac is calmly binding the wound before helping Curly get to his feet and he asks me to go retrieve the jeep, which I did stop and park before jumping out, unlike Mac. So I do what he says and after we get Curly in the back I just went up one side of him and down the other, because that kid did not have one ounce of self-preservation in his entire body. And from that moment on I kinda went into over drive when it came to protecting him. To the point where he slugged me to make me stop."

"But you didn't stop," Riley guessed.

"I didn't," Jack agreed. "But I got more subtle about it."

Bozer exhaled loudly, like he'd been holding his breath the entire time Jack was talking. "So what about that Kingfisher dude. Did he ever turn around about Mac?"

Jack nodded. "He did. We were raided at our camp one night and it was startling being woke up to automatic gunfire and shouting and the like. You get used to it, but they were smart. They used car lights to blind us and keep them in shadows. You end up firing blind and hoping you hit them. So it's me and Kingfisher side by side behind a jeep and there's a thud at our feet and it's a grenade. And out of nowhere MacGyver just appears and he scoops up the grenade and lobs it right back at them and BOOM, it exploded just seconds later. Kingfisher just stared at him, and I could see he was impressed as hell."

"Mac picked up a live grenade?" Bozer was stunned.

"That was the first time he did it," Jack said. "The second time was the embassy in Latvia a couple of months ago." Jack could almost remember both events with fondness after the fact. "I think he was more shook up the second time. The first time I could tell he just reacted, and with all the chaos he didn't time to process what he'd done. The second time he didn't hesitate either, but this time there were true innocents who could have died. That was a bit harder for him to deal with." Jack stopped himself before he could get lost in thought again.

Riley had a question. "So did Kingfisher tell Mac he was impressed?" She was so invested in the story now that she almost felt like she had been there. It turned out Jack was a surprisingly good story teller.

Shaking his head, Jack continued with his tale. "Kingfisher didn't say a word. We took out the enemy and when it was all clear I found myself wanting to lock Mac away somewhere safe, except there wasn't any place that was safe out there. So instead I told him if he ever did something like that again, I would take him over my knee and spank him."

"No way!" Bozer exclaimed. "You did not!"

"I did, and Mac just looked me dead in the eye and said * _I'd like to see you try it*._ Jack smiled as he remembered back to that moment in time. "Needless to say I never followed through, although I have used that threat on him more than once. He keeps giving me the same response."

Riley had a one-track mind at the moment. "So what did make Kingfisher change his mind about Mac?" She really wanted Jack to get to the point already.

Scratching the back of his head, Jack took a moment to sort through his thoughts so he could tell it properly. "About a week later we came to a village. It looked deserted, but it was eerie, like everyone had just left. We spread out and cleared them one by one. There was one building that reminded me of a church. Me and Kingfisher and MacGyver went in. Next thing I know there's an explosion and rubble falling on us and when the smoke clears we're buried and Kingfisher has a metal rod stuck through his shoulder, pinning him to the floor. We can hear voices calling for us, them trying to dig us out, but it was going to take a bulldozer to clear the rubble." Jack closed his eyes, the sense memory of that day making him shudder. He could remember the dark, the feeling of being buried alive. It had been one of the worst moments of his life. Until Mac came to the rescue, yet again.

"Anyway, long story short," he continued. "It was dark and seemed pretty hopeless, but suddenly there's a flare of light and MacGyver had created a flashlight somehow and he was just so damn calm. He goes to Kingfisher and checks his wound and tells him he's lucky it went though the fleshy part of his shoulder so once they pull out the rod he can cauterize the wounds, but that it's going to hurt like hell. Kingfisher told him it already hurt like hell, so just do it. And the kid did. He told me to hold Kingfisher down and he rambled on, distracting him before yanking out the rod. He then told me to get Kingfisher's Kevlar off, while he heated up the blade of my knife with a lighter." Jack grinned at a side-note memory. "I asked him later why my knife and not his swiss army blade, and he told me mine was bigger and it needed to be to cauterize the wound in one shot. Which of course meant I had to tease him later, and mercilessly, about mine being bigger than his. At least, I did until Kingfisher threated to crush me if I didn't lay off the kid. Anyway..." Jack waved one hand as if to wipe away that memory before moving on.

"So the next thing Mac does is use a couple of bullets, a few other bits and pieces of stuff I don't even remember what, and he lights things up, tells us to duck into the corner of the two walls that were still intact, and he blows up the rubble, making a wide enough opening for us to get out. From that moment on, Kingfisher had nothing but respect for Mac. As for me, I knew in that moment that I would follow him anywhere."

Bozer found himself smiling, knowing that Jack had been watching his best friend's back in the past and now in the present, and that he would be doing the same in the future. "And here you guys are, still a team."

Jack nodded. "Always a team. I trust him with my life and even though it's my job to protect him, if we added up all the numbers, he's saved me more than I've saved him."

"S'not a competition, Jack." It was MacGyver who spoke.

Everyone in the room jumped to their feet and surrounded the bed.

Bozer looked at Jack. "I thought you said he'd be out until morning?"

"It was implied." Jack grinned. "You know Mac, he's always got to do the opposite of what's expected of him." He reached out to carefully pat MacGyver on the shoulder. "Welcome back, sunshine. How do you feel?"

"Cranky," Mac replied, shifting to try and sit up more. Not a smart thing to do, because it felt like every inch of his body was one, giant, bruise. He remembered hitting a wall, stumbling out of the building. He vaguely remembered being on a plane, but everything after that was a bit hazy. Rubbing at his eyes, MacGyver then took a look around. "Hospital's suck," he grumbled.

Riley grinned at him, she was happy he was okay. "I think you'll survive," she teased him. "Next time, run faster."

MacGyver scowled at her. "And to think I used to like you." He lifted one hand to smooth a lock of hair out of his face and got side-tracked by the fact that he had an IV port attached to it. Holding it out he asked Jack, "Why is that there?"

"Because you're supposed to be resting until morning," Jack replied. "Guess I'll have to call the Doc in." He reached for the call bell.

"Let's just call it morning and we can go now," Mac said. And by *we* he meant himself.

Jack hated to burst Mac's bubble, but he did it anyway, all in his friend's best interests. "You need to stay put and let yourself heal a bit. You cut it a bit too close this time, bud. I'm sorry I wasn't there." Jack felt the need to apologize, even though he knew Mac would yell at him for it.

Which Mac did. "You're an idiot." It was quiet yelling because his head ached.

A nurse entered the room before Jack could respond. She held up a syringe and added it to the port attached to the IV bag as she stated, "Dr. Taylor had a feeling you might wake up earlier, Mr. MacGyver. This will help you rest until morning." To Jack she said, "Call me if he isn't back out in a few minutes."

"I can do that," Jack allowed.

"I hate you all," MacGyver announced, hearing himself starting to slur as a liquid warmth seeped through his veins. Already his eyelids felt heavy and darkness wrapped around him, pulling him back into slumber. He decided it wasn't worth the effort to resist, so he went willingly.

Jack was glad the kid was back to sleep. It would do him good. "Hey, guys...you two might as well go home now. Mac's going to be fine and this time he will sleep until morning. I'll bring him home as soon as he's released."

Bozer hesitated. "You sure?" He believed Mac was going to be fine, but he found himself reluctant to leave.

"I'm sure," Jack said firmly. "Don't worry...I've got his back."

"I know you do." For which Bozer was grateful. He turned to Riley. "What do you think? Stay or go?"

Riley shrugged. "Probably go. I doubt Mac would appreciate us sticking around to watch him sleep. It would creep me out."

Bozer agreed. "Good point." He reached out to squeeze Mac's shoulder. "See you later, dude."

"Later, Mac." Riley offered her own goodbye, even though she knew he couldn't hear her. She then gestured for Bozer to lead the way out. "See you, Jack."

"Good night, Riley. Bozer." Jack waved them out before settling back in his chair. He turned his phone on and found himself scrolling through the picture gallery. There weren't many, but he stopped on a group one of him and the team from Afghanistan that they'd asked the pilot to take once they'd reached state side. He and Mac were on the right and Jack had his arm slung over the kid's shoulders. MacGyver really did look like a high school senior in the picture, but Jack kept it to remind him of how far they'd come in so short a time. Not to mention the fact that after getting Kingfisher out of the ruins, MacGyver had collapsed at Jack's feet. Turns out the kid had been hit in the head by rubble and hadn't said a word. But that was Mac, always putting other's before himself. That was just who he was, and Jack respected him for that, even though it drove him a little crazy, still today.

"Good times," Jack whispered, because despite the danger they'd lived with, they had survived and come out stronger than ever. More importantly, they had forged a friendship that would stand the test of time.

Jack wouldn't trade that for anything in the world.

THE END


End file.
